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Right-wing rally gets underway in Berlin

A Berlin court overturned a ban on a right-wing rally after the state interior ministry said the candle-lit march would negate the meaning of memorials on the anniversary of the Kristallnacht pogrom.

A right-wing rally got underway in the German capital on Friday evening after Berlin's Administrative Court lifted a ban on the protest, which took place on the 80th anniversary of the Kristallnacht pogrom against Jews. Large counter-protests also took place in the city.

The march, organized by right-wing movement We are for Germany (WfD), had been called off on Wednesday by Berlin's interior minister, Andreas Geisel.

Geisel, a member of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), had banned the rally saying its timing would negate the meaning and the significance of the memorial day.

"The idea that on the 80th anniversary of Kristallnacht right-wing extremists could march through the government district – perhaps in the dark with burning candle – I find it unbearable," said Geisel.

'For our homeland' inscribed on a candle during the right-wing rally in Berlin

However, Berlin's Administrative Court ruled the ban was illegal and allowed the rally to take place. A court spokesperson said the march did not pose a threat to public order, a condition necessary to impose such bans.

Geisel said he would appeal the court's decision.

Counter-protests

Organizers called We are for Germany's rally a "funeral march" to "commemorate the victims of politics and their actions." Participants were invited to bring along candles to the march, which is planned to start near Berlin's government district.

The group, a nationalist and anti-EU movement, said it stands for German culture and identity.

Anti-fascist groups have organized counterprotests to oppose what they call a "right-extremist provocation."

80 years ago: the Nazi 'Night of Broken Glass' pogrom

What happened on November 9-10, 1938?

Anti-Semitic mobs, led by SA paramilitaries, went on rampages throughout Nazi Germany. Synagogues like this one in the eastern city of Chemnitz and other Jewish-owned property were destroyed. Jews were subject to public humiliation and arrested, and at least 91 and probably more were killed.

80 years ago: the Nazi 'Night of Broken Glass' pogrom

What's in a name?

The nationwide street violence against German Jews is known by a variety of names. Berliners called it Kristallnacht, from which the English Night of Broken Glass is derived. Nowadays in German it's also common to speak of the "pogrom night" or the "November pogroms."

80 years ago: the Nazi 'Night of Broken Glass' pogrom

What was the official reason the pogrom?

The event that provided the excuse for the violence was the murder of German diplomat Ernst vom Rath in Paris by a teenage Polish Jew named Herschel Grynszpan. Ironically he wasn't executed for the crime. No one knows whether he survived the Third Reich or died in a concentration camp.

80 years ago: the Nazi 'Night of Broken Glass' pogrom

How did the violence start?

After vom Rath's death, Adolf Hitler gave Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels oral permission to launch the pogrom. Violence had already broken out in some places. The SS were instructed to allow "only such measures as do not entail any danger to German lives and property."

80 years ago: the Nazi 'Night of Broken Glass' pogrom

Was the violence an expression of popular anger?

No, that was the just official Nazi party line, but no one believed it. Constant references to "operations" and "measures" clearly indicate that the violence was an act of state. It is unclear what ordinary Germans thought of the mayhem. There is evidence of popular disapproval, but the fact that the couple in the left of this picture appear to be laughing also speaks volumes.

80 years ago: the Nazi 'Night of Broken Glass' pogrom

What did the Nazis hope to gain from the violence?

In line with their racist ideology, the Nazis wanted to intimidate Jews into voluntarily leaving Germany. To this end, Jews were often paraded through the streets and humiliated as in this image. Their persecutors were also motivated by economic interests. Jews fleeing the Third Reich were charged extortionate "emigration levies" and their property was often confiscated.

80 years ago: the Nazi 'Night of Broken Glass' pogrom

Did the pogrom serve its purpose?

After such massive violence, German Jews could be under no illusions about the Nazis' intentions, and those who could left. But such naked aggression played badly in the foreign press and offended many Germans' desire for order, so further anti-Jewish measures took more bureaucratic forms such the requirement that Jews wear visible yellow Stars of David on their clothing.

80 years ago: the Nazi 'Night of Broken Glass' pogrom

What was the immediate aftermath?

After the pogroms, the Nazi leadership instituted a whole raft of anti-Jewish measures, including a levy to help pay for the damage of November 9-10, 1939. The second most powerful man in the Third Reich at the time, Hermann Göring, famously remarked, "I would not want to be a Jew in Germany."

80 years ago: the Nazi 'Night of Broken Glass' pogrom

What is the Kristallnacht's place in history?

In 1938, the beginning of what became known as the Holocaust was still two years away. But there is an obvious line of continuity from the pogrom to the mass murder of European Jews, in which the Nazi leadership would continue to develop and intensify their anti-Semitic hatred. In the words of one contemporary historian, the pogrom was a "prelude to genocide."

Author: Jefferson Chase

The significance of November 9

On the night of November 9, 1938, Nazi Germany launched violent riots against Jews across Germany.

Between several hundred and 1,300 people are estimated to have been killed or driven to suicide – although the official numbers list only 91 victims. Hundreds of Synagogues, prayer rooms and Jewish businesses were destroyed.

The events were a first indication of what would happen later during the Holocaust.